Every week for the past three years, people from our community have gathered to learn hands-on skills, receive valuable information and connect with one another on dozens of sustainable living topics.

“Sustainable Tuesdays” events, or Ganawendakamigaa endaso-niizho-giizhigak in Ojibwe, have covered a variety of topics from beekeeping to composting, canning, gardening, environmental protection, renewable energy, to building rocket stoves and making herbal remedies. They continue to be held every Tuesday at the Rail River Folk School and exemplify the commitment our community members have to resilient and sustainable living.

It started three years ago with a conversation between Simone Senogles at the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), and Brett Cease, former Minnesota GreenCorps member in BSU’s Sustainability Office. They were talking with Jessica Saucedo, co-owner of the Rail River Folk School, about food sovereignty, community gardening and creating a youth garden. Cease suggested launching regular educational programming on a variety of sustainable living topics that celebrate the vibrancy of our community and draw on the wealth of knowledge of our local experts.

“Bemidji is small enough to benefit from a close-knit community in which we can ask each other to donate time and expertise,” Senogles said. “Sustainable Tuesdays is about big ideas, hopes, and connecting people with community resources. One can spend a lot of time talking about what should be done, but actually doing things is what Sustainable Tuesdays is about.”

The Folk School grounds offer the perfect opportunity to dig in and do hands-on activities and projects.

“We want to promote systemic change through thoughtful action. There are things happening globally that are frightening; we are dependent on energy and food systems that simply aren’t sustainable. People are worried about system failures and want to be healthier, more self-sufficient and lead more ethical lifestyles,” Senogles said.

Sustainable Tuesdays is about showing people that more sustainable living is doable. There are meaningful actions we can take that can be highly effective without becoming completely overwhelmed.

Among the favorite topics at Sustainable Tuesdays are bees and pollinators. If you visit the Folk School garden, you are likely to see Senogles in her beekeeper suit, tending the two beehives she keeps to show people how to care for bees, harvest honey and have conversations about the importance of native pollinators and honeybees and the risk of habitat loss, herbicides and pesticides.

Sustainable Tuesdays events have also had local experts focus on local foods such as saving seeds, how to grow your own garden, and learning about local community supported agriculture (CSA) businesses in our area. Harmony Foods Co-op, another Sustainable Tuesday’s partner, has hosted hands-on food preparation and preservation workshops in their community kitchen. All of these workshops have discussed how our global food system requires large amounts of fossil fuel-based energy to grow, process and transport food from the farm to the stores where we buy it. Sustainable Tuesdays on the other hand teach our community members skills and provide resources that support more environmentally responsible practices.

Senogles has co-led Sustainable Tuesdays in partnership with Erika Bailey-Johnson and Minnesota GreenCorps members Cease, Caitlyn Schuchhardt and Sara Dennison through the BSU Sustainability Office nearly every Tuesday since January 2012. When asked why she does this, she replied “working for a national environmental justice organization (IEN) since 2001 was a big eye-opener. The connection between social justice and the way we treat the environment really hit home for me.

“For example, here at the Headwaters of the Mississippi the water is clean, we can swim, fish and enjoy the water, yet, as the water moves downstream, it picks up more and more pollutants from the cities and towns along its course. We are all responsible for what we send ‘downstream,’ or for those who come after us, our children, and grandchildren. I want my son to have clean lakes to swim in, good soil to grow food in, and open spaces to explore.”

If you would like to know more about Sustainable Tuesdays, here are some things you can do to get involved:

• Check out the “Sustainable Tuesdays” Facebook page for details about weekly events.

• Join us for Sustainable Tuesdays, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm every Tuesday at the Rail River Folk School, 303 Railroad St., SW, Bemidji.

• Email Simone Senogles if you would like to be added to the Sustainable Tuesday email list or volunteer to lead an event (simone@ienearth.org).